Conventionally, for the purpose of obtaining more natural photographs, imaging apparatuses have been configured to use bounce photography which is a technique of capturing an image by causing a light-emitting unit of a strobe device to emit light and irradiate a reflective object such as a ceiling or a wall to diffuse the light so that a subject is indirectly illuminated by the diffused light.
Specifically, the bounce photography is a technique of capturing a subject image not by directing a irradiating surface of the light-emitting unit of the strobe device toward the subject but by directing the irradiating surface in a desired direction toward the reflective object such as a ceiling or a wall to cause the light emitted from the strobe device to be reflected from the reflective object and to illuminate the subject.
Then, there has been proposed a configuration of a conventional strobe device to automatically control a bounce angle formed between a capturing direction which is an optical axis direction of a capturing lens and a irradiating direction in which the strobe device irradiates (a desired direction toward the reflective object) by using a control section of the strobe device (see, for example, PTL1). It is described in PL1 that the strobe device with the above described configuration can indirectly illuminate the subject by always directing the light-emitting unit toward a reflective object during the irradiation.
In addition, the strobe device described in PL1 measures the distance with autofocus by directing the capturing lens of the imaging apparatus toward a ceiling (the reflective object) and the subject respectively and sets the bounce angle based on distances from the reflective object and the subject to capture an image of the subject.
At that moment, the strobe device is usually attached to a hot shoe provided on a top side of the imaging apparatus.
Alternatively, the strobe device is sometimes used while being attached to a bracket together with the imaging apparatus. In that case, the imaging apparatus and the strobe device are set adjacent to each other on the bracket. On that occasion, in a case where the strobe device is configured to automatically change an angle of orientation of the light-emitting unit, the light-emitting unit may bump against the imaging apparatus. Accordingly, a drive system of the strobe device is damaged.
In addition, when a user who uses the strobe device attached to the hot shoe of the imaging apparatus captures an image of a subject by using a finder of the imaging apparatus, the light-emitting unit may bump against a head or the like of the user as in the above described case. That may not only damage a drive system of the strobe device but also make trouble for the user.